My Balcony(Atul Sharma) My Balcony


Whenever I open the door to get into my balcony, it is not uncommon for two or three pigeons to fly away, afraid of the unknown approaching them, and then they make themselves comfortable in the balcony opposite to my flat. Their sudden flight too scares me, but what option do I have, as I need to enter my balcony to soak up the sun in these winter months.

Their sudden departure produces pity in my heart but still I want to confess that more than pity I get scared by the sudden ruffle created by them. One day, tired of this feeling of dread arising in my heart on a daily basis, I decided to make it a habit to slam the balcony’s wooden door twice before entering. This produced instant result as the pigeons got scared thus bringing their sudden flight.

Today, before entering the balcony, I observed my daily ritual of slamming the door twice. It was a bit cloudy in the morning and the sun god bothered to appear in the afternoon only. Rejoiced on having the sun at my disposal, I slammed the door twice, anticipating its usual result, but could only hear the flight of one pigeon. I re-slammed the door to get my desired result but could not. Now my heart pounded a little on the prospect of getting hurt in the process of entering my own balcony. As I knew, my arrival could startle the other pigeon still occupying my balcony and in the disarray, it could hurt my face.

I mustered some courage and peeked into my own balcony. There I spotted a pigeon sitting comfortably in its nest directly staring at me. It even did not bother to make its usual flight posture. Instead, it was a bit scared on seeing me. I saw that the pigeon was sitting in its nest, made neatly on the marble floor below the summer cooler. My flat being on second floor it created no danger for the pigeon of any untoward attack from its usual predators.

I wanted to go back as I understood that it was a female pigeon, which might lay her eggs soon. On the other hand, I did not want to leave the prospect of the tempting warmth being scattered by our own sun God. I was in a state of dilemma and stood there pondering over the situation.

Then an idea hit upon me and I called religion to my aid. Religion suggested that I should not disturb the little fellow and track my steps to the nearby park if I was so hungry for the sun. I found favour in religion’s advice as I could be saved from committing sin by adhering to its advice. I tracked my steps to the park with a tingling sensation in my heart, which knew that my own balcony was going to be a safe haven for the species of the pigeon populace soon.

---